… So declared Danish-American sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, about his ambitious project in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Eighty-four years ago today, on October 4, 1927, the massive sculpture was begun on Mt. Rushmore.
While the monument is impressive in photographs, the awesome scale is truly breathtaking in person. (Next best thing; if you can’t visit, rent Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest”.)
“The purpose of the memorial is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation, and unification of the United States with colossal statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt.”
~ Gutzon Borglum ~
Construction of the giant sculpture took 14 years. The original plans, which called for the presidents to be depicted from head to waist, had to be altered due to time and funding constraints. Although Borglum didn’t live to see his sculpture finished (he passed away on March 6, 1941), his son Lincoln completed the project on October 31, 1941.
The monument was put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1933. On October 15, 1966, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And in 1991, President George H. W. Bush officially dedicated Mount Rushmore.
Significantly, a bronze plaque on the visitor center’s viewing terrace, stands as a refutation of the Leftist lie that America was not founded as a Christian nation. Bracketing descriptions of several significant events in U.S. history, the following words are inscribed:
Almighty God, from this pulpit of stone the American people render thanksgiving and praise for the new era of civilization brought forth upon this continent. Centuries of tyrannical oppression sent to these shores, God-fearing men to seek in freedom the guidance of the benevolent hand in the progress toward wisdom, goodness toward men, and piety toward God…
~~~~~…Now, these eras are welded into a nation possessing unity, liberty, power, integrity and faith in God, with responsible development of character and devoted to the performance of humanitarian duty.
Holding no fear of the economic and political, chaotic clouds hovering over the earth, the consecrated Americans dedicate this nation before God, to exalt righteousness and to maintain mankind’s constituted liberties so long as the earth shall endure.
This composition was written in 1934 by college student William Andrew Burkett, the winning of an essay competition. [Full text – as a Word document.]
It’s sad that we’ve forgotten, or re-written, so much of America’s wonderful history in the last eight decades. Yet Mt. Rushmore still remains as a tribute to our past and founding principles.
